I actually wish that the "masses" could get on the same page and collectively tell the NHL and its players to go screw themselves.....should a strike occur it would be great to see, when resolution finally takes place, nobody giving a shit and some fairly empty barns come the eventual drop of the puck. And not just one game. Let them sweat it out and play in empty arenas and let TV ratings hit rock bottom for a few months.

There won't be a strike. If there is no hockey, it'll be a lockout, owner's call, just like last time. And I expect there will be a lockout, for a while. I have to say, though, while I'll miss hockey if it is gone, I'm not terribly sympathetic to the woe is the fan view. This is the way it goes. All of us who are fans know it is a business, and of course we're going to pay through the nose..if we weren't willing to pay so much they wouldn't be making so much. We're the victims of our own addictions...they got us where they want us baby!!

They'll figure it out, probably by early December, and we'll all move on and talk hockey like it never happened, just like 2004. We get indignant, some say they'll never come back, but the league knows we all will be, and that'll be that.

Hey, it takes some serious posture for some posters considering some of their posts (I don't want to get into their posters... I still have my vintage Iron Maidens and Pink Floyds in a sleeve somewhere in my basement).

Seriously, though, the fan is a casualty of necessity in this case. The owners feel it necessary to stop the season in order to maximize their profit, now that they have the chance to do so. The players feel it necessary to protect what working reality they have now that the owners have pretty much declared labour war.

I'd like to think otherwise, but we're being taken for granted that we will come back when this is all over one way or another. This side of the border, I'd say they're right. As for the sunbelt, I hope they have deeeeep pockets. Like the the Ed Sniders and Jeremy Jacobs of the world give a damn. Now that they've collected on the expansion fees, like hell if they're going to subsidize their southern cousins. I wouldn't be surprised if the Coyotes and Blue Jackets get moved or absorbed. Can't say I'd shed a tear.

As I said elsewhere, Linden called it IMO. No NHL hockey till Christmas at the earliest. Buttman's supporters among the owners won't miss much revenue in that time with baseball and football in full swing in their markets. I'd like to see the PA stick to its guns, put a November/December deadline of their own and threaten to call off negotiations until May if it doesn't get worked out. Farm their players out to the euro leagues and give the owners the real threat of a whole season's worth of lost revenue. Maybe lobby the IIHF to make it difficult for players in the euro league's to come back before next season at the earliest and watch the complexion change.

I'd like to see a more collaborative labour atmosphere and there was an illusion of one right after the last CBA was signed, but considering the assholes who keep Buttman in place there won't be any so long as they still own the franchises they do. Maybe it would be worth it for a prolonged labour stoppage, the KHL and other euro leagues to swoop in and sign a bunch of stars and put the existential scare into these robber barons. Might wake them up to get the league's ship in order because it's been broken for decades, sunbelt expansion or no.

Hey, it takes some serious posture for some posters considering some of their posts (I don't want to get into their posters... I still have my vintage Iron Maidens and Pink Floyds in a sleeve somewhere in my basement).

I'll see that and up you a Sargent Peppers still mint in it's jacket, in fact I have a Gerry Mulligan EP in sleeve from about 1955

Meds wrote:Wouldn't the irony be just sickening if the PA played hardball so the owners said fuck it and hired replacement players.....and the Vanvouver Replacement Canucks win the Cup.....

Or any other team with no silverware yet.....I'd love it.

You mean scabs. Replacement players are those who play when a player is injured. A scab is a loathesome piece of shit that hopefully dies a slow and painful death. Used exclusively by rich owners of businesses to steal the food out of your children's mouth. In this instance they would be used to break the NHLPA. If scabs are ever introduced, this is one fan who will walk away forever. When Keanu Reeves starred as a scab I quit going to any movies he has been in.

Meds wrote:Wouldn't the irony be just sickening if the PA played hardball so the owners said fuck it and hired replacement players.....and the Vanvouver Replacement Canucks win the Cup.....

Or any other team with no silverware yet.....I'd love it.

You mean scabs. Replacement players are those who play when a player is injured. A scab is a loathesome piece of shit that hopefully dies a slow and painful death. Used exclusively by rich owners of businesses to steal the food out of your children's mouth. In this instance they would be used to break the NHLPA. If scabs are ever introduced, this is one fan who will walk away forever. When Keanu Reeves starred as a scab I quit going to any movies he has been in.